[1] The term is often applied to those whom the Church perceives as its enemies, such as those whose "disastrous" and "suppressive" acts are said to impede the progress of individual Scientologists or the Scientology movement.
[2] One of the reasons Scientology doctrines portray suppressive persons as such a danger is that they are supposed to make people around them become potential trouble sources (abbreviated PTS).
Ruth A. Tucker writes in her book Another Gospel: Cults, Alternative Religions, and the New Age Movement that the concept appears to have first been introduced into Scientology in the 1960s "as membership grew and as authoritarian control [by Hubbard] increased".
Tucker notes that many of those who joined Scientology during this period were "well-educated people who prided themselves in independent thinking [and] struggled with the idea of allowing any other individual to completely dominate their opinions.
"[5] Many of Hubbard's early writings on suppressive persons focus on their alleged responsibility for poor management within the Church of Scientology.
[8]The church regards these "antisocial personalities" as being those "who possess characteristics and mental attitudes that cause them to violently oppose any betterment activity or group".
Therefore, a parishioner who is found to have such suppressive connections is not permitted to participate in certain Scientology classes and counseling until the situation has been adequately resolved.
Once the education step is completed, the person can further follow the guidelines to sort out the situation so that the parishioner is no longer negatively affected.
The concept of the suppressive person in Scientology has been the source of some controversy, due in some part to aversion to the idea of "disconnecting" from close family members and friends.
[13] The list includes individual ex-Scientologists and breakaway groups regarded as hostile or heretical, such as Erhard Seminars Training (EST).
In a lecture he made on 19 July 1966, L. Ron Hubbard expressed concern about the possible abuse of the "suppressive person" label in respect of those who are otherwise good citizens and contribute to civil society: You should upgrade your idea of what an SP is.
He insisted the drill was not based on Hubbard teachings and stated that he had been previously threatened with an SP declaration after a run-in with a Scientology attorney on an unrelated issue.